This invention is generally concerned with a machine including means for selecting the marginal distance from the leading edge of a sheet for printing indicia thereon and, more particularly, with a mailing machine Including means for selectively changing the marginal distance from the leading edge of a tape or envelope for printing indicia thereon.
As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,918 for a Diagnostic Keyboard For a Mailing Machine, issued Jan. 27, 1987 to Linkowski and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, it is known in the art to provide a mailing machine which includes a microcomputer for controlling structures for feeding a sheet downstream in a path of travel and printing postage indicia on the sheet, and which includes a sensor for sensing the leading edge of a sheet fed through the machine, wherein the microprocessor is programmed to respond to a signal from the sensor to delay indicia printing for a predetermined time interval to locate the postage indicia a predetermined distance upstream from the leading edge of the sheet. Further, as shown in the '918 patent, it is known in the art to connect a plurality of selectively manually actuatable switches to the microprocessor and program the microprocessor to respond to actuation of one or more of the switches to select one of a plurality of different delay time intervals for locating the postage indicia different distances from the leading edge of a sheet.
As shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/978,020, for a Machine Including Means For Selecting The Marginal Distance From Sheet Leading Edge For Printing Indicia On Sheet, filed Nov. 18, 1992, by Dennis Gallagher, et. al., and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,245; there is disclosed an improved mailing machine including tape dispensing structure, and an improvement in the margin selecting structure of the aforesaid '918 patent, including the provision a plurality of light emitting diodes for displaying the selected, different, distances at which indicia printing will be set back from the leading edge of the sheet.
In the aforesaid application concerning an improved mailing machine, details of the tape dispensing structure and its operation are not disclosed due to tapes being fed to the machine in the same manner as the other sheets discussed in the application. Moreover, in the aforesaid prior art mailing machine, preparatory to feeding stuffed envelopes, a service person is normally called in to adjust the marginal distance of set back from the leading edge of an envelope at which the postage indicia will be printed, in order to be sure that the indicia is set back a sufficient distance to avoid poor printing quality occasioned by printing on a stuffed envelope's "stepped" portion, i.e., an edge set back from the leading edge and raised by the envelope's contents. If the machine is thereafter used for printing postage indicia on a length of cut tape, which has a standardized overall length of six inches, the marginal distance of set back of the indicia from the leading edge of the tape has to be changed if the customer wants to be able to print two postage indicia on a single tape in order to avoid waste. Moreover, it is noted that in high volume mail processing environments wherein a one-half cent savings in postage costs per letter or parcel is perceived to be a significant savings, tape wastage is not tolerated. Accordingly, the service person would have to be called in adjust the marginal distance before using the machine for tape printing purposes. And, since this procedure is time consuming and unacceptably expensive in high volume mail processing environments, the customer's level of satisfaction with the machine is greatly adversely effected. Accordingly:
an object of the invention is to provide an improved mailing machine including improved tape feeding structure and means for separately selectively adjusting the marginal distances from the leading edge of a tape or envelope at which an indicia will be printed thereon; and
another object is to provide a mailing machine including means for separately displaying each of a plurality of selected marginal distances of displacement from the leading edge of a tape or envelope at which postage indicia will be printed.